Joseph: King of Dreams (2000)

B
SDG

Artistically, the best thing about
Joseph: King of Dreams is the visionary animation work in
the dream sequences. It’s here that this DreamWorks
direct-to-DVD/VHS animated retelling of the story of the
patriarch Joseph and his brothers comes closest to matching its
astonishing big-screen predecessor, The Prince of Egypt.

Age Appropriateness

MPAA Rating

Caveat Spectator

One of the visual highlights of The Prince of Egypt was
also a dream sequence: Moses’ spectacular hieroglyph-vision of
Pharaoh’s slaughter of innocents. Inspired by that creative
triumph, the creators of this "prequel" have crafted new dream
sequences in the spirit of Moses’ vision but with their own
visual flair. (King of Dreams does directly borrow the
hieroglyph technique for a daydream sequence; it’s still nice,
but not stunning here.)

Joseph’s own dreams — the two biblical ones plus an extra one — are the best; I caught my breath at the first glimpse of these
dreams, which look like living, flowing Van Goghs. The dream-sky
swirls like Starry Night, and the grass ripples under the
dream-Joseph’s feet like ripples in a pond. The dreamlike quality
of these sequences is undeniable and memorable.

If this painterly technique had been used for all the dreams,
I would have been happy. But more conventional animation is used
for the two prisoners’ dreams that Joseph interprets. As for
Pharaoh’s dreams, they are rendered with computers in a daring,
symbolic style, with sickly cows and ears of corn represented by
towering, painted obelisks. It’s an interesting experiment, and
while I don’t think it quite works and wish they had stuck with
the impressionism, I give them credit for trying.

All right, that’s the best of the good news. Time for the bad
news. Accept it now: Joseph: King of Dreams is not
remotely in the same class as The
Prince of Egypt. The style of drawing used in the
animation superficially resembles the look of the earlier film,
and a similar sensibility is at work adapting the story in a way
that is both reverent and creative. Yet from the first stanzas of
the unremarkable and even initially off-putting opening song
("Miracle Child"), it is apparent that we are not in for another
groundbreaking tour de force of animated biblical
storytelling.

The Prince of Egypt is more grown-up than most
cartoons; its characters and situations are complex, its
storytelling sophisticated and mature. Joseph: King of
Dreams is much more a children’s movie. The songs, while
cheerful and uplifting, are generally unmemorable (a standout
exception is the ominous tune "Marketplace" that accompanies
Joseph’s arrival in Egypt); there’s nothing here to compare to
the Moses/Ramses "Plagues" duet, or even "There Can Be Miracles."
Moreover, in Prince of Egypt the songs are deployed more
subtly; instead of characters openly breaking into song, the
songs are used to give musical expression to a character’s inner
thoughts. Here the model is more the traditional Disney musical
(though again, not up to Disney quality). As for the animation
itself, it’s fine but not wonderful: the monuments of Egypt
haven’t a fraction of the soaring grandeur they had in the first
film (I know it’s half a millennium earlier here, but still); and
there’s nothing here remotely comparable to the majestic walls of
water at the Red Sea.

All the same, once one stops making unfair comparisons to a
theatrical film made on a much bigger budget, Joseph: King of
Dreams is very much worthwhile on its own more modest terms.
The story, while both simplified and elaborated, retains its
essential power, and is accessible to young viewers. Joseph’s
sibling rivalry with his brothers is depicted in terms that any
child will readily understand, and the sequence in which they
throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery is handled with
the same sensitivity as Moses’ killing of the Egyptian man.
Likewise, the episode with Potiphar’s wife has been made as
understandable as possible without presenting anything
inappropriate for young children.

There are some nice narrative devices. When Joseph (Ben
Affleck) finds himself being pulled out of the pit by Midianite
traders, he doesn’t immediately understand that his brothers have
betrayed him, and cries out in dismay, "Let me go! My brothers
will come for me!" Then he sees that his brothers are standing
there, and the traders toss the brothers a bag of silver pieces.
Later in Egypt, when his brothers arrive to buy grain, one of
them gestures with a bag of silver — reminding Joseph of the
price of his betrayal, and raising his old anger against his
brothers. Then, when he has Simeon (Steven Weber) arrested and
thrown into prison, Simeon calls to him, little dreaming how his
words echo an earlier cry of distress: "You won’t keep me here!
My brothers will come for me!"

The filmmakers take two interpretive liberties which are
entirely defensible but which some viewers may question. In the
first place, they suggest that Joseph’s favored status with his
father may have rather gone to his head. During the "Miracle
Child" opening sequence, when his parents give him the famous
coat of many colors, he sings of the coat’s symbolism: "To
remind me of things you’ve told me all my life / I am special, I
am smart / I am somehow set apart / Petty rules and limitations
don’t apply!" At that point, mere minutes into the movie, I
wanted to throw him in the pit myself.

Second, Joseph’s motives for "testing" his brothers are called
into question. Has he truly forgiven them, or is he trying to pay
them out for what they did to him? (This may seem at first the
less pious interpretation, but think about it: Do you want your
kids testing each other to see if they’re sorry for bad things
they did?) Joseph’s Egyptian wife Asenath (Jodi Benson) doesn’t
understand her husband’s anger and pleads with him to be
reasonable; but only when he sees that all his brothers — even
Judah (Mark Hamill) and Simeon — are willing to sacrifice
themselves for now-favored Benjamin is he able to embrace his
brothers and reveal his identity.

Ben Affleck’s performance as Joseph is adequate but little
more; like Sandra Bullock as Miriam in The Prince of Egypt, he’s too
American (and in this case even too New-Jerseyan) to be really
effective in a biblical epic: he sounds about as ancient as a Big
Mac. The rest of the cast, though, are experienced voice actors,
and on the whole the movie sounds good.

In one small way, Joseph: King of Dreams even outshines
the earlier film: The spirituality of its signature song, "You
Know Better Than I," is much more profound than anything in the
more mainstream "There Can Be Miracles": "You know better than
I / You know the way / I’ve let go the need to know why / I’ll
take the answers You supply / You know better than I."
There’s a message my kids can listen to as many times as they
want.